What's Past
by Sebe
Summary: She remembers the Winchesters even though she'd like to forget. Outside POV. Some powers!Sam.


Author's Notes: Meant to be around Season 6, probably post-wall. Just tiny speculation as to why the Winchesters haven't had any problems with the law finding them lately. Maybe because all the agents that know who they are are just as well leaving them officially dead rather than get in their path sine, all the others who have, ended in such awful and strange ways.

Summary: She remembers the Winchesters even though she'd like to forget. Outside POV. Some powers!Sam.

**What's Past**

Agent Lila North grumbled as she made her way down to the video surveillance lab. She hated the basement and had no idea as to why she had been summoned. She was no good deciphering video footage. She swung open the door and was taken aback by the number of people present, ranging from techs to a few agents who maybe had cause to be there and a few, she knew, didn't.

"What's going on?"

Her voice got the attention of the agent behind the tech, the only other one there near her rank.

"We just got some interesting footage from one of the local hospitals." He motioned toward her and a path cleared through the dozen or so people as she moved next to the other agent, Brian, she thought his name was. "You remember a case you worked back when you were under Agent Henrickson?"

Lila's brow creased. She remembered. It was back before she was a lead agent.

"There were a couple." She told him, a strange weight settling in her stomach. "Which one?"

"The Winchesters."

Lila let nothing change in her facial expression, but she tensed.

"They're dead. What about them?"

"They might not be so dead." He turned back to the tech. "This came in yesterday as a by-product of an investigation at County General. We had audio on a couple of hidden cameras. The pictures are a bit unfocused, but well…maybe you should just watch."

He signaled the tech and the tape rolled. Lila curved her fingers into the hem of her blazer. It was a slanted shot. A young man, somewhat worse for wear, sitting up, but slumped over in exhaustion while another man, slightly older, carefully finished zipping him into a hoodie. The one standing ducked his head a bit, trying to catch the other's eye, one hand on his bruised cheek.

"_You with me, Sammy?"_

There was no indication of a response, but the older man nodded anyway. Moving away for a moment and peeling back the edge of that curtain that connected to the hallway, checking if anyone was around.

They looked different, Lila thought, from when she had last seen them. The only time she had seen Sam and Dean Winchester in person had been when they'd held up that bank years ago. They weren't much changed in appearance really, but they seemed...just different. World-weary and sage.

The older one, Dean, turned back to Sam, lifting his chin and making him look him in the eye.

"_We gotta do a runner on this one, Sammy. No other way. You think you can make it?"_ He ran his fingers through Sam's hair in a comforting gesture. Sam was slow to respond, but he leaned into the touch and nodded. It wasn't the first sign Lila noticed that he seemed off.

The way they acted together wasn't any different. They were each other's world. Raised together in an insular environment, they knew every step and move the other would make before they made it. That knowledge and bond was what had made them such a problem for Lila's predecessors.

From all reports, Dean was overprotective of Sam, but the youngest Winchester had always been perfectly capable of holding his own._ Stanford, well-trained, Bonnie, fire_, Lila recited to herself. He should have been edging Dean away, or at least being snarky with him. They'd even bickered like the brothers they were in the bank. Here he just seemed…lost.

Sam must have gotten hurt, been injured at some point; possibly been done some permanent damage. Alarm bells went off in Lila's head. If Sam was hurt, Dean would be in attack mode, like he wasn't already dangerous enough.

Dean got an arm around his waist, pulled Sam's arm around his shoulders, steadying him.

"_Okay. Let's go."_

Lila watched them stumble out into the empty hallway, Sam pushing along walls to help keep himself standing. The image changed to a different angle from another camera, showing the boys working their way down a corridor. Dean stopped short, cursing under his breath, and looking around quickly. He pulled his brother down another hallway as a doctor rounded the corner of the first, narrowly escaping being seen.

Sam seemed to pull back from Dean, making a distressed noise. Dean immediately shushed him.

"_Come on, Sammy. You're okay. You're okay."_ His shaggy head nodded jerkily and they started off again. They had almost made the doors when Sam jerked back completely from Dean's hold, slamming into one of the walls and bringing his hand up to his forehead, shaking his head back and forth.

"_No, no, no, no…"_ He mewled miserably. Dean had his hands on his brother's shoulders, looking frantic and worried.

"_Sam? Just a little farther, okay? Almost home free."_ He looked around, knowing time was running out. Sam tried to move further back into the wall, shaking badly. The minute he started to sink down the wall, Dean swept an arm under his knees and caught Sam's back with the other one. Sam was taller than Dean, but slimmer than his brother now, almost unhealthily so. Still, it was an effort to carry him, but Dean didn't hesitate.

Soft curses from the older brother came through the audio. He started toward the exit, telling Sam how bad he was gonna owe him for this in a poorly veiled attempt to cover his concern. Sam, for his part, had stilled in his brother's arms, not fighting him.

Dean turned and pressed the bar down on the door with his back. They came out into the parking garage.

"_Almost there, Sammy. Almost there."_ He seemed to be assuring his brother as well as himself.

Lila watched as they made their way toward a large black car that she remembered from before. Only the plates were different. Suddenly, Sam's head came up, looking back behind them. His suddenly alert eyes stared right at the hidden camera that he couldn't have seen, his head resting on his brother's shoulder. His lips formed in the shape of words, but there was no sound. Then the screen went dark.

"What happened?"

"That's it. Something shorted out in the camera. Damn wires were fused together. But that was them, right?"

Lila didn't answer, instead turning to the tech.

"Rewind it. Close up on this one's face." She ordered, unease in her gut. "Move it forward slow."

She watched, along with the others in the room, as Sam turned to the camera again. She read his lips as they formed the words.

"No eyes." She said, her movement mirroring Sam's. The room was quiet as everyone seemed a bit disturbed. Lila jumped at the flash of something just before the screen went black. "Rewind it. Play the last part again. Slower."

The tech did as asked and Lila kept her eyes trained on Sam's. She sucked in a breath of surprise.

"Stop. Again and pause."

Jesus, Sam's pupil's were blown wide, the black surrounded by a flash of blinding light that was no camera flare; so brilliant it seemed otherworldly. There was something awful in those eyes that almost hurt to look at. Something old and threatening and powerful. There wasn't a sound from anyone around her. Finally, Brian spoke up.

"It…it was a camera flare, right?"

Camera flares don't melt the fucking camera, she wanted to say, but didn't.

She remembered all the disasters that had followed the brothers. How it had seemed almost unreal that two people could cause the kind of things they were accused of. She recalled all the fantastical stories their team had heard during their search about the Winchesters, who hunted monsters and demons and drug behind them the darkness they were too immersed in to ever escape. The death of the father that had only drawn the two brothers closer, made them more dedicated to their fight, to their war.

She had blown off the stories then. Only thought about them in the moments between dark and dawn when sleep eluded her, thinking, maybe it was possible, maybe… But it was always dismissed in the morning. Henrickson had scoffed at the tales, adamant about not being drawn into their psychosis.

He was certain that all they were dealing with were two orphaned, likely abused, brothers turned codependent killers that just happened to be at the epicenter of all the weird shit that happened in the world. The cases other agents would get and leave unsolved rather than reporting, 'She says a ghost killed them'. Or something equally 'X-files' worthy. All agents hated that show.

Henrickson had always been just one step behind the carnage. One desecrated grave or headless corpse too late. Finally, he found them, cuffed them, brought them in, won. Then he had become a part of their destruction.

An entire police station destroyed, as though it had been hit by a missile. Everyone inside, dead. One girl tortured, the rest burned or mutilated to the point no one cause of death could be determined. Lila remembered the medical examiner telling her, off the record, that no humans could have done this, no matter how well trained they were. That there was _'something evil surrounding those boys'_.

'_Fuck this.'_

"Get out. All of you. Now." She waited until it was just the three of them, her, Brian, and the tech, left. Her voice was calm and steady with a bite of steel to it. "Sam and Dean Winchester are dead. They have been for years. Agent Henrickson died with them after their apprehension and a minute and a half of video feed isn't going to reverse an official Bureau statement or tarnish a dead agent's name. Is that clear?"

Brian and the tech exchanged glances. She thought they might look a bit wary of her, maybe still a bit spooked by the 'Winchester' sighting. They both nodded in agreement. "Good. Destroy the tape and any backup feeds."

Lila reached forward and pressed a button and the image went black. Without another word, she turned and walked out the door, never looking back.

What she had seen in those eyes…there wasn't anything to describe it. Something cold and warning and protective. And those mouthed words…there was no sound, but she swore she could hear the voice in her head_. 'Stay away, this is our world. You're not welcome.'_ Lila knew how people around the Winchesters ended up and she wouldn't be caught up in it like Henrickson had been. Too stubborn to back off and too curious to let them go.

She didn't believe in ghosts or demons, but she knew there were some things you just made a point to avoid. You didn't get in the brother's way and you didn't get between them, there was just no room. Their shared history of fire and blood and the heavy hang of death would have been too much for anyone else to bear anyway. The Winchesters, and whatever war they were fighting, were best left alone.


End file.
